The Frog Footman and the Fish Footman
Aiee! It is the ceremony of the first blades of winter.
Horticulture, horticulture, the little steam train says puffing up the mountainside.
As if he had never known a home of his own, only ditches.
Three stomps with a stone stump and the colloquium started.
Beggars under the drainpipe, another hand’s cast of the bone dice.
Whatever name the event has, it can be understood as an invitation.
Epilepsy, epilepsy, the little steam train said, descending at evening.
They bowed so low that their wigs tangled and I had to laugh.
Copyright Credit: William Dickey, “The Frog Footman and the Fish Footman” from The Education of Desire. Copyright © 1996 by the Estate of William Dickey. Used by permission of Wesleyan University Press, >www.wesleyan.edu/wespress.
Source: The Education of Desire (Wesleyan University Press, 1996)